NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Valiants set seven personal bests alongside a program record as Manhattanville Track & Field took part in the NYU DIII Invitational at The Armory on Saturday. Despite inclement weather threatening to cause havoc for a second-straight weekend, the Valiants conquered the elements and turned up the heat indoors in the Big Apple.
Matt Boggi (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) took down the program's record in the shot put for a second-straight meet to lead the Valiants' plethora of PRs. After etching his name atop the record book last weekend at the Big Apple Invitational with a distance of 11.93 meters, Boggi broke out the eraser again and logged a throw of 11.99 meters. The effort was good for 13
th place in the field of 28.
Uzoma Nweze () had the top placement for the Valiants across the 15 total events the teams competed in on Saturday. The freshman took third in the unseeded 60-meter with a time of 8.90 seconds, knocking five-hundredths of a second off her previous best time in the event. Nweze finished 0.16 seconds behind Bard's Jynaiya Grizzle who won the event.
Jen Schmidt (Williston Park, N.Y./Herricks) competed in the seeded 60-meter, placing 36
th with an 8.89 second finish. Schmidt and Nweze were joined by
Alicia Bibi (Marlborough, Mass./Marlborough) in the 200-meter, with Schmidt leading the threesome by placing 38
th with a time of 29.31. Nweze (29.37 seconds) and Bibi (31.86) placed 40
th and 58
th, respectively.
The three would link up again in the 4x400 with
Adelina Rodriguez (Westbury, N.Y./Westbury), placing 12
th with a 4:45.51 finish. The time is the fourth-best in the program's indoor history. Rodriguez also ran the 400-meter, placing 46
th with a time of 1:15.51.
Gabrielle Billetz (Clarksburg, Mass./Hoosac Valley) rounded out the women's efforts by competing in the shot put, registering a thorw of 10.26 meters to place 13
th.
Alongside Boggi and Nweze, five more Valiants on the men's side set personal bests, with three of those performances coming in the mile run.
Roberto Schneiger (New York, N.Y./Urban Academy Lab),
Darlig Delgado (Bay Shore, N.Y./Bay Shore Senior) and
Daniel Baldessarre (Highland Mills, N.Y./Monroe Woodbury) finished in rapid succession to take places 53, 54 and 55 respectively as all three recorded new top time. Schneiger finished in 5:06.85, Delgado crossed in 5:07.19, and Baldessarre finished with a split of 5:08.66.
Joey DeMilio (White Plains, N.Y./White Plains) earned a new top time of 2:00.52 in the 800-meter, placing 15
th, while
Zach Garrant (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill High School) rounded out the day's personal best barrage with a high jump of 1.70 meters, also taking 15
th.
Four Vals ran in the 200-meter, let by
Shai Graham's (Bronx, N.Y./Bronx Theatre High School) 23.35 second showing to place 18
th.
Aka Udeagha (Rye, N.Y./Rye) (24.30 seconds, 35
th),
John Castaneda (Howell, N.J./Howell) (24.54, 42
nd), and
Luca Perez (Somers, N.Y./Somers) (25.97, 56
th) also took part in the dash. Graham and Castaneda would also compete in the 60-meter seeded prelims, placing 20
th (7.30 seconds) and 30
th (7.47), respectively, while Perez placed 17
th in the unseeded 60 with a time of 8.04 seconds.
Courtney Brown (Clarendon, Jamaica/Mount Vernon) took 36
th in the 400 meter with a time of 55.18 seconds before running alongside Udeagha, Garrant and Graham in the men's 4x400. The tandem took 14
th with a time of 3:39.15, the fifth-fastest time in program history.
Up Next
The Valiants head to Wesleyan next weekend to compete in the J. Elmer Swanson Invitational on Saturday.
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